In the weekly meeting to follow up on the latest developments regarding the coronavirus pandemic at the health ministry, Abdel-Ghaffar said the percentage of hospitalisation as well as occupancy rates at ICUs also declined by 50 percent.

Furthermore, the minister announced that 31,722,116 people have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 so far nationwide.

Moreover, as many as 1,803,108 individuals have been vaccinated against the coronavirus in Menoufiya, Fayoum, Minya, Sohag, Luxor, and Aswan through a door-to-door campaign that ended on 17 March. 

The campaign — which started on 7 March — was meant to preserve the public health and boost herd immunity in rural areas in the country, the ministry said in a previous statement.

On 12 March, the ministry announced that it would start issuing weekly — instead of daily — reports on the number of coronavirus infections and deaths.

The decision was taken after the country started witnessing a “consistent” decline in infections and deaths in the weeks prior along with with a decrease in the occupancy rates at isolation hospitals, signalling the imminent end of the fifth wave of the pandemic.

On Saturday, the ministry announced that the country recorded a daily average of 788 infections and 12 deaths over the period spanning from 12 to 18 March.